


There is no World behind the Glass

by KuraiOfAnagura



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, MerMay, Night at the Museum - Freeform, Otabek is a scientist, Other, Yuri is a tiger shark, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-29 22:20:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18787399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuraiOfAnagura/pseuds/KuraiOfAnagura
Summary: The museum prided itself with wonders from all seven continents and all seven seas, and a wonder the merman was indeed. He had long blond hair, billowing like a cloud of pure gold and when their eyes met for the very first time Otabek was sure he died on that day and all of the myths of sirens stealing your heart and soul were true. He swam in endless defeated circles through the tank, as if he’d seen the walls for so long that he’d forgotten that behind those walls there was a world.





	There is no World behind the Glass

**Author's Note:**

> This originated in a writing sprint on the Discord Server for the Namida Angst zine!  
> Which's sales are currently open! \0/  
> https://www.yoiangstzine.com/

**The Thief**

Dangerous was a peculiar word. Beautiful even more so. Yet bringing those two contradictory things together never failed to create a thing that would take your breath away.   
Scattered ice glittered like nothing else, yet it would cut and sear you as soon as you’d touch it. The pattern of the cobra draws you in like nothing else, yet she would kill you with her poison as soon as you dared to cross her. Lightning had always demanded awe and respect in men like nothing else, yet if you were to get too close, the hammer of the gods would strike down and wipe out your very existence.

Things like these always held a magnetic force over Otabek. His mother feared that he would find an untimely end, because he was drawn by the vastness of the sky over cliffs, by the entrancing spots of the leopard.   
He’d seen it all, the wide mountains and the great trees and he feared that his life would be from now on one of boredom. That was until he accepted the offer of a museum to work for them and there in the big aquarium he saw a thing so dangerous and beautiful it stole his breath right out of his lungs, choking him and stripping his self bare. He knew nothing before and nothing that would come after would ever touch his soul like this again.

The museum prided itself with wonders from all seven continents and all seven seas, and a wonder the merman was indeed. He had long blond hair, billowing like a cloud of pure gold and when their eyes met for the very first time Otabek was sure he died on that day and all of the myths of sirens stealing your heart and soul were true. He swam in endless defeated circles through the tank, as if he’d seen the walls for so long that he’d forgotten that behind those walls there was a world. 

Otabek had swum with sharks in the past, protected by steel and in the wide open, the light grey striped body was a familiar sight and so alien at once. He was beautiful and he was dangerous, that was for sure; the eyes, though broken and cut like glass, still could burn and the sharp needle like teeth could still rip anyone to shreds. Since he’d resided in the tank the latches were closed tight and whenever there was the need of cleaning he was caught with steel rods and bars and even if his spirit was broken the fight had never left him.

  
He didn’t know for how long or how often he stood at the tank. Everyday he went to the big glass window during his break and would watch the endless circles. Sometimes the other sharks would accompany him, but most of the time he swam alone.   
Otabek stayed late that night and when he passed the dimmed lights behind the glass he found the merman still. He laid on the sandy bottom of the tank, one hand reaching towards the surface as if he’d been able to remember the stars that way. Otabek stood close to the invisible border separating them, the merman’s eyes darted towards him but his gaze went skyward again.

“Hello,” Otabek greeted, because he felt compelled to fill the oppressing silence.

He received no answer.

“My name is Otabek.” Silence from the glass and no sign of recognition.

“I’m sorry that I have not introduced myself any sooner, that was very impolite of me.”

The creature changed his hand, painting lazy patterns with deathly webbed claws.

“I work here as a researcher, though I don’t know what I want to research. I’ve seen all of the wonders of the world already. Or at least it feels like it.”

Otabek sat down and apparently the merman didn’t mind.

“I’ve swam with sharks as well. I don’t know if it’s because their kind is so old, but I sense a wisdom from them whenever I cross their paths. The sea is the last frontier, that is, its depths. A world and wonders cut off from our reach. And sometimes I think that’s for the best. Humans can be despicable at times.”

It was a whisper like the sea, a calling that pulled at his heartstrings. 

“Yuri.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Otabek wanted to jump but something rooted his feet into immobility.

The Merman turned to lay in his side, his eyes suddenly locking on Otabek’s and even breathing became oh so hard. A smirk and suddenly his chest would expanse again. What kind of spell was that?

“My name. You gave me yours, it’s only right to reciproke.”

Otabek had to blink at that, still paralyzed, frozen even. 

“You talk?”

“Do you?”

Otabek opened his mouth again, but closed it just as fast.

“I’m sorry, that was rude. Forgive me, but I never heard of you talking?”

“There’s nobody who would listen.” He turned around again and watched the glittering surface. The other sharks would paint beautiful patterns whenever they crossed his field of vision.

“I’ve tried to plead, I’ve asked, I’ve begged. It made no difference if I’d talked or not. So why bother?”

His voice had a strange cadance to it, muted and muffled through the thick glass, roughened by disuse and yet… yet Otabek could sit here and listen till his dying day.

“What happened that you came to be in here?”

The blond barely there brows turned into a frown, pictures and memories unknown to Otabek unfolded in his mind.

“I swam with my pod, my family. We were trying to herd our whales away from one of your ships. I was the rearguard, making sure nobody would be left behind, but…” the frown turns into a scowl and sorrow flooded Otabek’s chest. “I think we were not fast enough. Suddenly there was so much sound, the water around me was angry, as if the ocean screamed at me with all its wrath. I tried to fight it, I tried to stand it, but it was too much… I remember darkness. And pain. And when I woke up again I was on a beach with some of my whales. A piece of … something has hurt my tail. I was weak and couldn’t do a thing when your kind arrived and took me away from the sea.”

Otabek, in a weak and futile attempt, tried to justify his specie’s actions.

“Maybe they meant good? You were wounded and it is in our nature to help.”

“Good? You call this good?” 

Now he was up and furious and his wrath was a thing to behold. Otabek thought about thunderstorms raging over deserts and not spilling a single drop, he thought about icebergs, sinking ships and ending thousand of lives. He thought about the fire of the earth and how she would swallow everything in her fiery maws.

As soon as the anger had flared up it died again like an ice crystal in the sun and so died the merman’s hold on Otabek.

His limbs tingled as he’d regained control over his body again, but he still felt caught.

“I’m here for so long. Sometimes I wonder if there is an ocean on the other side of this world and if I’d be free when I’m gone.

“I’ll free you!” he said so fast his brain couldn’t even think before his mouth moved.

That got the merman’s attention.

“You would kill me?”

“What? No. That’s a sin you cannot ask of me. But I will bring you back to the sea.”

“How?”

Otabek stopped. How indeed. He’d seen the locks on the latches at the top of the tank, but even if he’d manage to break them without tools he was still here on his bike and there was no way he could carry the merman all the way to the shoreline.

“I need tools. And transportation. I’ll have it arranged tomorrow. Tomorrow night I’ll take you back to the sea.”

A tired smile, bitter and hurt, stole itself on pale lips. His gaze showing the same scars that littered his body, human and shark alike.

“I underestimated you. You’re the most cruel one of them all. The others hurt me, kept me caught. But you… you torture my soul with hope.”

And with that he turned around and no matter how much Otabek pleaded and begged and hit the wall with his fist until it bled, Yuri wouldn’t turn around.   
In the end he went home in the grey hours of the morning to a cold bed and a handful of fitful sleepless hours.

The car was not a problem, the tools required half a day off, but in the end he spent his evening again in his office at the museum, making up for the lost time at work. He was sure he would be fired after this. If not worse.

Yuri’s head popped out of the water as soon as Otabek had started to work on the lock that held the thick metal mesh over the surface tightly closed.

“You came.”

“I told you I would. We’re not all like them. Can you get out of the water yourself? I’m sure I can carry you to my car, but heaving you up may be too much?”

Yuri didn’t say anything and didn’t make any move to get closer to the for now open latch. His eyes bore into Otabek’s and with a sudden thought he knew why the merman remained still.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “There is a world behind the glass. There is the ocean and it waits for you.”

The merman managed to heave himself onto the platform were Otabek stood. He instructed him to crawl into his arms as he carefully backed down the stairs backwards. Yuri kept his arms tightly around his neck.

“Do you require water? It’s not a long way to the shore.” Otabek called himself an idiot. He had not thought of any means of hydration.

“I will manage,” Yuri said and his unfamiliar melodious voice held a strain and the promise of hidden pain.

He gently put the merman in the back of his car, wetting his coat with water and draping it over the gasping torso. Suddenly he heard alarms and noticed movement within the building. He let Yuri be and rushed to the front of his car. Of course there would be a silent alarm.

“What’s going on?” Yuri asked from the back and in his panic tried to get a hold on Otabek’s self.

“Please let me drive. I promise I’ll bring you to the sea!” He felt Yuri fading and feared for the worst when the back grew quiet.

He drove as close to the shoreline as he dared and tripped through the sand to rip the back door open. He heard sirens and saw their light in the distance. He didn’t have much time.

“Yuri? Yuri wake up, we’re here. Can you hear the waves?”

Those impossibly coloured eyes opened and it was as if the fog was lifted from a glass when the sound reached his consciousness. Otabek saw himself gazing into the depth of the lagunes of the south, smelling the warm salty wind and feeling the foam around his calves.

He shook his head to clear it, gathered all of his strength and pulled the body flush against his. They stumbled in a grotesque dance over the beach until he stumbled and fell into the oncoming wave. He felt Yuri’s body taking the first breath in freedom. The water had to be murky and full of sand, but he felt the sweetness it held.

“I cannot take you with me.” He said regarding the screams that headed their way.

“Go.” Was all Otabek said.

Yuri crawled further into the spume, but turned around one last time. 

“Do you see that structure over there?” He asked and pointed towards the lighthouse. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to return. But wait for me at the first light of the day and I will reward you your kindness.”

Otabek wanted to say how he didn’t need a reward but by the time he’d opened his mouth Yuri was already gone.

 

\--

 

The small children called him Ota, the old man, the teenagers thought him odd and the overcautious mothers pulled them all away from him equally.   
It’s been 37 years since old man Ota had bought the lighthouse after serving his sentence for  thievery in the nearby museum. Since then he’d never left, not even for a day. And without fault he could be seen standing on the small footbridge at the foot of the lighthouse, where the rock met the waves, at the first light of the day.

He was a friendly man, kind to everybody, but a loner. The elders of the little port town and its fishers though knew about his fate as soon as they looked at his eyes.

His heart had been stolen by the sea and for every day he waited for its return.

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from a bittersweet poem, The Panther, from german poet and author Rainer Maria Rilke:
> 
> Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe  
> so müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält.  
> Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe  
> und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt. 
> 
>  
> 
> Roughly translated:
> 
> The Panther
> 
> His gaze has become so tired from seeing nothing   
> but the bars, that it no longer holds anything anymore.  
> He feels as if there are a thousand bars   
> and behind those bars there is no world.
> 
> The lithe swinging of that graceful easy stride  
> Which circles down to the tiniest hub  
> Is like a dance of energy around a point  
> In which a great will stands stunned and numb.
> 
> Only at times the curtains of the pupil rise  
> Without a sound…then a shape enters,  
> Slips through the tightened silence of the shoulders,  
> Reaches the heart, and dies.


End file.
